Joe Klein: Gun Advocates Feed People 'Anti-American' 'Crap'

JOE KLEIN, TIME: Well, we’ve become a lot more wimpy country because, you know, these gun advocates at the NRA want these semi-automatic weapons. I mean, you see Marshall Dillon only used one shot. You know, what do they need all those bullets for? I guess they just don’t feel very strong.

CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Well, what about the culture, the cowboy thing?

KLEIN: Well, I think that that’s at the root of it, but there’s something else that’s going on now that is really, really dangerous, and it’s this festering sense that we need to have these semi-automatic weapons because the government in Washington is about to oppress us.

MATTHEWS: Yeah, I know.

KLEIN: And that is paranoia that these groups like the NRA, the Gun Owners of America, they feed this crap and it really is anti-American.